The finder isn't always the keeper.

Last winter, Janis Ward – a part-time resident of Cordillera, near Vail, Colorado – took off her 12-carat yellow colored diamond ring to apply hand cream while on her way to the airport.



Janis and her husband, Roger, were rushing to catch a flight to their Miami home and didn't notice that the ring, which he had given her as a 30th anniversary present, was lost. When they finally missed it, they contacted the Eagle County airport and employees began searching the premises for the diamond.

The airport workers couldn't find the ring, but Minneapolis resident Mark Epple spotted it and picked it up, thinking that it was a piece of costume jewelry. Epple, an architect who had recently been laid off, contacted the airport, who put him in touch with the Wards.

The diamond ring was sent back to the couple and repaired. Epple refused to accept any reward for returning it (despite the fact that the ring's value is probably equivalent to a couple years' salary), although he and his family did accept the Wards' offer of a ski vacation in their Colorado vacation home.